The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

[Ben X]

 

I've got a pretty big games backlog that I'm working my way through, and I've decided to clear a big chunk of it out by playing all the FPSes in chronological order. So I thought I may as well post my thoughts here. It'll likely take a long time - I don't have that much time for gaming at the moment - so this thread may not get updated very regularly. I'll probably play through a lot of the early ones on easy, because I've got a lot to get through and some of those 90s FPSes are crazy tough. I'll also give up on a game if I'm hating it. I'm going to try and stick to the original experience, so no mods and no mouse look for the earliest ones (including DooM^TM even though apparently it was possible - no one outside of id actually did that, right?). I'll allow some genre-bleeding. I'll also probably mention a few that I've played previously and can remember my impressions of.

 

My list (mainly for my own interest, I've given a colour rating (only 75 emoticons allowed so couldn't do thumbs!) to all the games played so far. It's mainly about my final enjoyment level rather than a broad review of the game as a piece of art):

 

 

Wolfenstein 3D (5/5/92) direct link

DooM^TM (10/12/93) direct link

Marathon direct link

DooM^TM II (30/09/94) direct link

Rise Of The Triad (21/12/94) direct link

Dark Forces (28/02/95) direct link

Duke Nukem 3D (29/01/96) direct link

Quake (22/06/96) direct link

Shadow Warrior (13/05/97) direct link

Jedi Knight + Mysteries Of The Sith (30/09/97) direct link

Quake 2 (30/11/97) direct link

Unreal (30/04/98) direct link

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (30/09/98) direct link

SiN (31/10/98) direct link

Half-Life (19/11/98)

Thief: The Dark Project (30/11/98) direct link

Aliens vs Predator (30/04/99) direct link

System Shock 2 (11/08/99) direct link

Gunman Chronicles (20/1/00) direct link

Deus Ex (17/06/00) direct link

No One Lives Forever (9/11/00) direct link

Project IGI (15/12/00) direct link

Clive Barker's Undying (21/02/01) direct link

Serious Sam: First Encounter (23/03/01) direct link

Operation Flashpoint (22/06/01) direct link

Return To Castle Wolfenstein (19/11/01) direct link

Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault (22/01/02) direct link

Serious Sam: Second Encounter (02/02/02)

Jedi Outcast (26/02/02) direct link

No One Lives Forever 2 (30/09/02) direct link

Unreal II (03/02/03) direct link

TRON 2.0 (26/08/03) direct link

Jedi Academy (17/09/03) direct link

Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death (17/10/03) direct link

Deus Ex: Invisible War (02/12/03) direct link

Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (01/06/04) direct link

Far Cry (23/03/04) direct link

Painkiller (12/04/04) direct link

Thief 3 (25/05/04) direct link

DooM³ (03/08/04) direct link

Medal of Honor Pacific Assault (04/11/04) direct link

Half-Life 2 + episodes (16/11/04) direct link

Star Wars: Republic Commando (17/02/05) direct link

Condemned: Criminal Origins (15/11/05) direct link

Prey (11/07/06) direct link

Call of Juarez (15/09/06) direct link

Dark Messiah Might 'n Magic (24/10/06) direct link

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (20/03/07) direct link

BioShock (21/08/07) direct link

Portal (09/10/07) direct link

TimeShift (30/10/07) direct link

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (05/11/07) direct link

Crysis (13/11/07) direct link

STALKER: Clear Sky (22/08/08)

Crysis Warhead (16/09/08) direct link

Mirror's Edge (11/11/08) direct link

Zeno Clash (21/04/09) direct link

Killing Floor (14/05/09) direct link

Section 8 (01/09/09)

STALKER: Call Of Pripyat (02/11/09)

Left 4 Dead 2 (17/11/09)

BioShock 2 (09/02/10) direct link

Metro 2033 (16/03/10) direct link

Sniper: Ghost Warrior (29/06/10) direct link

BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (31/08/10) direct link

Homefront (15/03/11) direct link

Crysis 2 (22/03/11) direct link

Sanctum (05/04/11)

Portal 2 (19/04/11) 

Duke Nukem Forever (03/05/11) direct link

E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy (29/07/11) direct link

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (23/08/11) direct link

Rage (04/10/11) direct link

Serious Sam 3: BFE (22/11/11) direct link

Receiver (18/06/12) direct link

Dishonored (09/10/12) direct link

Bioshock Infinite (26/03/13) direct link

Zeno Clash 2 (30/04/13)

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (30/04/13) direct link

Call Of Juarez Gunslinger (21/05/13) direct link

Rise Of The Triad (31/07/13) direct link

Shadow Warrior Special Edition (26/9/13) direct link

Wolfenstein: The New Order (20/05/14) direct link

Ziggurat (23/10/14)

Superhot (25/02/15) direct link

Strafe (09/05/17) direct link

 

[eot]

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on them, I've played a lot of older shooters in the past year myself and enjoyed a lot of them. Skimming your list though I see one glaring omission: Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. A Monolith game, easily one of my favourite 90's shooters!

[Zeusthecat]

No Goldeneye or Perfect Dark? Or are you only considering games that are currently on your backlog?

[Twig]

No Goldeneye or Perfect Dark? Or are you only considering games that are currently on your backlog?

Looks to me like it's all (or nearly all) PC games. Which is the correct way to do anything involving FPS!

 

With Timesplitters 2 being the one notable exception, of course.

[SecretAsianMan]

There is a PC version of Goldeneye, but it's a mod that uses the Source engine and I think it's multiplayer only, so that would probably disqualify it.

 

I'll tentatively volunteer to play some of those co-op games when you get there.

[J.C.]

When I saw the title, I expected awful things, because there are so many bad FPS. That said, that is a solid list.

 

For the Serious Sam games, will you be playing the original versions or the gussied up HD versions? Heck, same for Riddick.

[eot]

If you play the HD version, skip Dark Athena. It'll end your experience with an amazing game (Butcher Bay) on a five hour sour note.

[Ben X]

Yeah, it's backlog and PC only. Maybe when I get to the end I won't hate FPSes and will ask for recommendations! If people want to discuss other FPSes in here, that's great, but I think it will only work if it fits loosely within my chronological order (so around when I'm playing SiN would be a good time to bring up Shogo, for instance).

 

For Serious Sams it's the HD versions, unfortunately. I'm going to see if I can find a way around that, because I want to play them as first released without having incongruously good graphics . Riddick is Butcher Bay Developers Cut....

 

Ooh, also, some of these so I may not be able to get them working!

[Ben X]

Wolfenstein 3D

 

I actually started playing this for about half an hour a few weeks ago. My first impression: fucking difficult! So I'll start again on baby mode and see how I do.

[eot]

I might try to play along, as much as time allows anyway.

Are you going to do some of the expansions as well?

There are some great ones, like OpFor for Half-Life. Sin's expansion pack is good too.

[Ben X]

Sweet.

 

Oh, I guess if anyone really wants me to play a particular game, they can gift it to me!

[Patrick R]

I will play Thief and Deus Ex alongside you when/if you get to them. I've never played Thief, but Deus Ex is my all-time favorite game and I've played through it maybe a dozen times now.

[undermind9]

Clive Barker's Undying is a jam (at least as i remember it) but know i'd never play again if i got it on GoG

 

Also AVP is great, it recently came up on another thread and folks were less enthusiastic with the controls and darkness of the world.  Makes for great MP if so inclined

 

 

i'll try and keep up here, i haven't played system shock 2 since it came out and i trapped my save slot between radioactive area and monkeys with low health...oops

[J.C.]

If you play the HD version, skip Dark Athena. It'll end your experience with an amazing game (Butcher Bay) on a five hour sour note.

 

Absolutely this. I started Dark Athena right after finishing Butcher Bay and it wasn't very good in comparison.

[Trip Hazard]

Gunman Chronicles? I played and completed that as a kid but had completely forgotten about it. Presumably it is a half-life mod that went commercial?

I quite liked it, which is not to say that it is a good game. I wasn't very discerning back then.

Undying is GREAT. It is flawed, no question, but I think it is genuinely creepy in parts and features a fun and varied arsenal. Props to the scythe!

Looking forward to hearing what you think

[Justin Leego]

Ooh! I'd be up for playing Left 4 Dead 2 with you and any other L4D2-backloggers, whenever you get to it.

,

Also, also, how about a Thumb Fortress 2 night as a way of crossing that off your list? What with last week's big Gun Mettle update it'd be a good time to check it out.

[Gormongous]

Cool project, but not enough FEAR for me!

[eot]

Also AVP is great, it recently came up on another thread and folks were less enthusiastic with the controls and darkness of the world.  Makes for great MP if so inclined

I load it up every once in a while, the marine campaign is still fantastic. The faster-than-doom running speed is a little weird at first, but I think the fast pace suits the source material and adds to the tension.

Counting expansions I finished 17 games from this list last year, I might skip replaying a few if I play along

[syntheticgerbil]

This project is my worst nightmare, but I wish you luck Ben.

[Ben X]

I'm now playing Wolfenstein 3D on baby difficulty, and it's definitely a good idea because the movement and aiming in this game make it pretty easy to lose a load of health to one enemy. Default is turning, not strafing, which is a pain in the tits, and your aim has to be pretty accurate to get a hit for a game with no mouse look. Also, there's no map or quicksave which I really miss, especially as it's so easy to get lost when the levels have very few wall textures and are essentially many many small rooms all linked together. Perhaps it's that I don't have a great sense of direction, but I very nearly had to start drawing a map at one point. Did anyone else used to do that playing this game?

 

On the positive side, it's already pretty atmospheric - the animations and sounds do a lot with very little, and it's cool tromping round a Nazi castle finding hidden artefacts and passageways. And when you get better with the handling and shooting, it's still quite satisfying to run round blasting. They even have cool little moments like a guard positioned facing away from you so you can sneak up and shoot him in the back, or an enemy seeing you, running away then waiting round the corner for you.

 

I don't know how long I'll play this for because it's all very samey. I might skip ahead an episode to see what new stuff is in there.

[Patrick R]

I constantly get lost in FPS that aren't event oriented corridors like Half-Life 2 or CoD. I owned Halo 3: ODST for two years before I ever played it because the first four times I booted it up I could not figure out a way through the opening hub world. I'm playing F.E.A.R. right now and about 5 hours of it takes place in the same office building with the exact same textures everywhere, and it was insanely disorienting.

 

But I think it's because I actually have a terrible sense of direction. Neither of those games have nearly the amount of repetitive environments that Wolfenstein 3D has.

[Ben X]

Yeah, I got lost for ages in DooM³ once, that was embarrassing.

[Ben X]

Okay, I'm done with Wolf 3D now. The maze-like levels and the droning music were killing me. I think it would have been a lot more fun as a 12 year old with a friend making maps and the music muted with some '92 Metallica blasting out instead, but I doubt I'll find anyone willing to join me for that.

There was the occasional nice bit of level design where they used signs and stuff to make it more navigable or obvious secret passages or holes leading to cave sections. And it did manage to make me jump out of my skin one time with a hidden Nazi suddenly yelling at me from a corner. But overall it was quite arduous.

I thought it was pretty hilarious just how much Hitler decor there is in this castle - stately portraits, extreme close ups of him yelling, even stained glass windows!

I watched a playthrough and it's a shame I didn't get to any of the bosses because they looked hilariously cheesy, and again some nice cinematic stuff going on with the death cam and the camera panning round to see the player character triumphantly fist-pumping. I knew there was mecha-Hitler in this game, but not that he starts as wizard-Hitler shooting fireballs at you and disappearing into thin air with a cackle as his wizard cape crumples to the ground. Then when you do enough damage his mech falls apart and you get vanilla Hitler, who shouts "Eva, auf wiedersehen!" before melting into a head and a pile of mush. I'm guessing Return To Castle Wolfenstein won't have a Hitler boss, which is a shame.

Next: DooM^TM

[Ben X]

My mouse question answered:

 

If you are playing under Windows 2000, or if the above did not work, your mouse will not work.  Don't worry, though - all three games in the DOOM Collector's Edition were originally designed to play without a mouse.  You can play entirely from the keyboard and get the true nostalgic gameplay experience of playing the games as they were originally played.

 

First thing I realised is that the strafing set-up is more similar to Wolf 3D than I remembered - rotating is still the standard. But at least there are separate strafing left and right keys now. I just need to figure out the best set-up...

[Ben X]

I had a quick 5 minute play with the crappy standard key layout, and this game is immediately so much more satisfying than Wolf in every way. The speed, the bobbing movement of your character, the music, the lighting, the level design (outside bits! memorable layouts!), the score screen (nice map, gunshots instead of bleeps), map view, exploding barrels! Also of course the graphics being a higher resolution helps.